The decision to hire Kevyn Orr, left, was made in advance of a public meeting, says union activist Robert Davis, right.

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Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

Robert Davis of Highland Park also alleges that Gov. Rick Snyder recruited and essentially hired Kevyn Orr as emergency manager — in contravention of state law, which reserves that role for the Emergency Loan Board. / 2012 photo by Patricia Beck/Detroit Free Press

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LANSING — E-mails released Thursday could lend weight to legal claims that a March 15 public meeting in which Kevyn Orr was hired to be Detroit’s emergency manager was merely window dressing.

The e-mails, released in connection with a lawsuit seeking to undo Orr’s appointment, show that both Orr and the members of the Emergency Loan Board, which hired him, were provided with the interview questions in advance.

Highland Park union activist Robert Davis, the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed in Ingham County Circuit Court, provided the e-mails to the Free Press.

Davis alleges that the decision to hire Orr was made in advance of the March 15 meeting, in violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act. He also alleges that Gov. Rick Snyder recruited and essentially hired Orr — in contravention of state law, which reserves that role for the loan board.

Terry Stanton, communications director for the Treasury Department and a spokesman for the loan board, told the Free Press about the e-mails: “The appointment of Kevyn Orr ... was done in full compliance with the law.”

The Michigan Court of Appeals lifted a stay in the case Thursday but reversed orders by Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette that would have required greater disclosures in the case by Snyder and others. The court ruled that Snyder is entitled to keep private information regarding government deliberations. It also ruled that Snyder adviser Richard Baird doesn’t have to testify about the names of other candidates for the job because that is not relevant to the question of whether the Open Meetings Act was violated.

“Do we have the talking points yet? Did I misplace them somewhere?” Emergency Loan Board member John Nixon wrote in an e-mail to Stanton on March 14, the day before the public meeting at which Orr was hired.

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“I think we were also going to have some potential questions that we need to ask,” said Nixon, who is the state budget director.

Stanton replied a few minutes later: “TPs (talking points), questions and most recent draft agenda are attached,” Stanton said. “I will assume that as ‘chair,’ AD (Treasurer Andy Dillon) will ask the first question. You and (Loan Board member) Steve (Arwood) can pick and choose from there.”

A nearly identical set of eight “sample questions” was e-mailed to Orr on March 13 by Tori Rexford, Snyder’s deputy director of scheduling, the documents show.

The questions were presented to Orr as ones the loan board members “can consider asking.”

At the meeting in Lansing, the three board members asked several of the sample questions nearly verbatim and asked no questions that were not among the samples.

Orr, who had been publicly introduced by Snyder earlier in the day, was interviewed from Detroit by telephone, with a video feed. He was the only candidate the loan board interviewed before making his hiring official.

Bill Nowling, a spokesman for Orr, said he “neither asked for, nor received any special consideration.”

Snyder has said he feels it was proper for him to recommend his preferred candidate to the loan board, which then made its own decision.

Larry Dubin, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, has said that even if Collette finds the Open Meetings Act was violated, he does not believe that will undo Orr’s appointment.